September 2019

EPDM: Top Tips
THE TOP FIVE BENEFITS OF
EPDM ROOFING MEMBRANES
Carl Bailey, from Firestone Building Products, discusses the benefits of choosing EPDM
for both domestic and commercial installations.
EPDM single ply roofing membranes have been used for both new build and refurbishment of flat
roofs for more than 40 years in the UK, and many decades-old installations are still going strong.
An extended service life is one of EPDM’s key USPs but there are many more – here are
Firestone’s top five benefits of EPDM roofing:
“An EPDM roof can flex
to cope with any
differential movement”
1Size Matters While bitumen-based felt
roofing systems are usually supplied as
1m wide sheets and thermoplastic singleply
membranes can be supplied at widths of up
to 2m, Firestone’s RubberGard EPDM membrane
can be ordered in any width between 3m and
15m on a 30m roll. This is because the
manufacturing process for EPDM enables larger
scale sheets to be assembled during production,
rather than being limited by the size of the
extrusion line.
The roofing contractor can select a width that
offers the best solution for the size and layout of
each individual roofing project, which saves time
and supports improved roof integrity by reducing
the number of seams; the most time-consuming
and critical element of any installation.
2The Right Fix Along with varied
choice of membrane size,
EPDM roofing systems
also offer a varied array of
fixing systems, providing
greater design flexibility for
use with almost any
substrate or roof build-up.
Firestone’s RubberGard EPDM
roofing system can be installed as
a fully-adhered or mechanically-fixed
system and can be used for inverted, ballasted,
green and modular roofs.
Adhesives are usually used with smaller widths
of EPDM and Firestone has developed a waterbased
adhesive specifically for use in factorybased
modular construction. This is also ideal for
Left: Carl Bailey, Firestone Building Products.
occupied buildings or any
environment where
nuisance odours may be
an issue.
For mechanically-fixed
roofs, which are always
advised when using a larger
width of EPDM, Firestone has
developed a fixing system that does not
penetrate the membrane, avoiding any
vulnerability to leaks around the fixing system.
3Fantastically Elastic EPDM is a naturally
and permanently elastic material, with over
300% elongation. As a result, EPDM roofs
are very resilient throughout their service life.
An EPDM roof can flex to cope with any
differential movement between building
components, avoiding the need for any complex
expansion joints unless required by building
regulations. EPDM does not crack or split at very
low temperatures, nor does it soften or melt at
very high temperatures and it can cope with
temperature shock from rapid temperature
fluctuation.
With an increasingly erratic climate, the U/V
resistance and long-term elasticity offered by
EPDM present compelling reasons to specify
systems like RubberGard EPDM.
52 TC SEPTEMBER 2019